Building Over Basin 1
First clearance work on site began in February 1998. Later in the year work started on excavating the basin, which had been filled in when the hospital was built in 1903.

 

The work was carried out by volunteers from the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust and teams of volunteers from the Waterways Recovery Group who had a number of work camps through 1999 and 2000. Up to 50 or 60 volunteers were working on the site on occasions.

 

Recycled bricks
The work co-incided with the demolition of the Over hospital that had stood alongside in readiness for a new housing development. Materials from the demolition were recycled by the Trust.

 

This included thousands of heavy Victorian bricks that went into the building of the wharf walls. The brick had to be picked from piles of rubble, sorted and the black mortar chiselled off of the surfaces ready for them to be relaid.